Ron Paul - John F. Kennedy - Martin Luther King Versus Tyranny

Glenn Beck & Bill O'Reilly Call For More Taxes On The American People

America, On the Ropes

The U.S. economy is bloodied and going down...AP -

The Consumer Confidence Index figures released Tuesday were much worse than analysts had expected and showed that Americans are morose about the job market and their economic prospects.

The index fell almost 11 points to 46 in February, down from a revised 56.5 in January and the lowest level since a 40.8 reading in April 2009. It erased three consecutive months of improvement, according to the Conference Board, the research group that releases the monthly index.

Analysts were expecting only a slight decrease to 55. Economists watch the confidence numbers closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Outside of the Great Recession, the index hasn't been this low since December 1974.

And AP reports on States revenues -

States again saw sharp declines in tax collections in the last quarter of 2009 -- a record fifth straight quarterly drop, according to a new report that predicts more looming spending cuts or tax increases.

Overall, revenue from state tax collections dropped 4.1 percent for the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2008, the Rockefeller Institute of Government reported Tuesday.

Housing -

First American CoreLogic reported today that more than 11.3 million, or 24 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages, were in negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009, up from 10.7 million and 23 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2009. An additional 2.3 million mortgages were approaching negative equity at the end of last year, meaning they had less than five percent equity. Together, negative equity and near‐negative equity mortgages accounted for nearly 29 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide. (Emphasis mine)

Employment? -

The Labor Department said the number of mass layoff actions -- defined as job cuts involving at least 50 people from a single employer -- increased by 35 to 1,761. Mass layoffs had trended lower since August.

Banks? -

The number of "problem" U.S. banks jumped 27 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009 to 702, the highest level since 1993 and a sign the industry's recovery is still shaky, regulators reported on Tuesday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said the industry overall eked out a profit of $914 million for the quarter, benefiting from a healing economy, but said the improvement was concentrated in the largest banks. (Emphasis mine)

The Real Effect
Let's make this clear, there are primarily only two groups that are profiting here. Those that take the money from the people and those that receive the money from those who take it. When those that take the money start losing ground, as indicated above, lookout.

Yellow Alert - Pound Crash on the Horizon?

From Infowars.net -

Billionaire financier Jim Rogers has predicted that the British Pound could completely collapse within weeks, sending shockwaves throughout the global economy and heralding the beginning of a downturn that would make the recent economic crisis look tame in comparison.

“Other currencies aren’t strong and the Euro has real problems, with cracks much wider than Greece beginning to show,” Rogers said.

“But it’s the Pound that’s most vulnerable. In real terms, it’s already devalued against virtually every currency barring the Zimbabwean dollar and it’s especially exposed over the weeks running up to the UK election. In a basket of currencies, the Pound is potentially a basket case. And that will put Britain in an extremely bad position for the shakedown.”
“The last few months have seen a ‘false bounce’, shorn up by massive short-term injections of government underwriting,” Rogers, the former business partner of George Soros, said.

“But it can’t last. We’ve been applying temporary sticking plasters, not long-term cures. Later this year we’ll see the start of the real recession, with more Lehman-scale disasters and a fallout which won’t stop until the underlying malaise is genuinely cured.” he added.Rogers’ sentiments echo those of Swiss Bank UBS, which this week speculated that there could be a run on the pound if the government too aggressively tackles Britain’s huge deficit, projected to reach £178bn this year.

Last week, Sterling hit a nine month low against the dollar, falling to $1.05, and slumping beyond parity for the first time against the euro.

An announcement yesterday by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, that the bank was ready to print more money and “do whatever seems appropriate”, sent the currency sinking once more.

Sterling fell sharply, from $1.5529 at 9.13am, just before King began speaking, to $1.5398 at 10.30am, when he finished giving evidence to MPs.

The stark downturn has led Jim Rogers and Marc Faber to predict a currency crash foreshadowing a full scale global “shakedown”.

The Real Effect
Back in September of 2008 (before the plunge), I referred to the economy/stock market as a sugar addict. (See prediction timing on chart below. Right before it lost over 40%)

The market is reacting like an addict, convulsing with desire for more goods (I.E. - Fiat debt-based liquidity). This will only make the fall that much harder.

Why? Because 1) It's an accurate description of the relation between the market and those that juice the market and 2) It helps us understand how this whole thing will play out.

Now imagine that you had a friend in the same position. Out all night, hopped up on caffeine/sugar, tired, hasn't slept in 3 days. What do you do? Give him more sugar to keep him going or tell him to sleep it off? Well if you don't follow the latter point, it's only a matter of time before his heart gives out and HE DIES!

Our economy is no different. More debt will only keep the fool alive a little longer but surely amplify the poison's negative consequences. Except our friend, the economy, has been resurrected once already. Now it's time for him to fling himself off the side of 100 story building.

Max Keiser on Inside Story - Greek Debt Crisis

A Good Reason to Homeschool

We're In a Greatest Depression

Karl Denninger of the Market Ticker opines on our current economic status -

Yes, I know all about the stock market rally from last March. I know all about the claimed GDP "improvement." But I also know that we got both by adding more than $2 trillion in debt to the United States - or roughly 14% of GDP - over the space of the last 18 months. That's about 10% of GDP annualized, and incidentally, a 10% GDP contraction is the common economist's definition of an Economic Depression.

So let's cut the crap - we are in a Depression right now. We are pretending we are not, just like you can pretend you didn't really lose your job so long as your credit card does not reach its limit. We have been in that depression for about 18 months and there is no evidence that we will exit it, as we have yet to find a way to pull back the deficit spending without an instantaneous collapse in the economy.

You haven't seen the half of what happened though - not yet. It appears that AIG - the company we have bailed out (thus far) to the tune of some $100 billion plus, in fact isn't done. It appears they may have written credit protection on Greece. If this allegation by the German equivalent to The New York Times is true Americans are going to be asked to pay billions of dollars - or more likely, hundreds of billions (since Greece is almost certainly not the only place - try Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc) to bail out a bunch of FOREIGN NATIONS.

If you do not believe it is going to get much worse than it is now, economically and otherwise, you once again need to go have that Thorazine dosage adjusted.

Keiser Report №19: Markets! Finance! Scandal!

Ron Paul on Morning Joe-Winner of CPAC Straw Poll

States Going Belly Up Part 5

Maine -

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway has filed notice with the federal government that it intends to abandon 233 miles of track that stretch across the northern third of the state, from Millinocket to Madawaska.

Railroad President Bob Grindrod says freight revenue has plunged as shipments of lumber, logs and wood chips have fallen. The products are largely used in home construction.

North Carolina -

Top lawmakers say North Carolina will come up $500million short of its $19billion budget by the end of June."It would not surprise me if it hit $600[million] or $700million," said Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "But $500million seems like a given."Revenue at the end of January was $35million behind estimates. The state would be in a $300million hole if not for a special Revenue Department program that settled dozens of business tax disputes, bringing in a flood of money. But income and sales tax collections continue to trail what the legislature's fiscal staff projected.

Michigan -

Michigan has at least $51.5 billion in unfunded liabilities for state pensions and retiree benefits which could require a tax increase or cuts to services if not corrected, according to a new Pew Center on the States report.

The shortfalls represent what the state was obligated to pay current and retired state employees as of the 2008 fiscal year.Nationwide, there is a $1 trillion shortfall in the public sector's retirement benefits, according to the report that was released Thursday.The report states Michigan has an $11.5 billion shortfall in unfunded pension fund liability, and a $40 billion shortfall in health-care and other retiree benefit contributions.

Illinois -

To become solvent, the state must enact the largest tax-increase package in Illinois history, whack another $2 billion from already starved government programs and wrest major financial concessions from the state's unionized work force, a nonpartisan government watchdog contends.

In a new analysis of Illinois' "horrific" finances, the Civic Federation lays out the painful choices awaiting Gov. Quinn and the Legislature as they stare down an epic $12.8 billion budget deficit that has choked the flow of state cash to public universities and schools, transit systems and social-service agencies to the point of economic collapse.

"Doomsday is here for the State of Illinois," said Laurence Msall, the organization's president.

The Civic Federation recommends that the state income tax be increased from 3 percent to 5 percent for individuals, that retirees' pension and Social Security checks be taxed for the first time at the same rate as workers' paychecks, and the tax on cigarettes be raised by another $1 per pack. The group also favors getting rid of $181 million in corporate tax breaks.

The Real Effect
So far we've covered Ohio, New York, Illinois, Nevada, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Washington and Texas, and adding the ones in from today brings us to (+3) sixteen states out of 50 (32%) that I've covered. Who's willing to bet that it's just as bad in the other 34 states?

Here is one of the most succinct versions of the last two years that I have read yet -

In October 2008, the mainstream media and politicians of the Western world were warning of an impending depression if actions were not taken to quickly prevent this. The problem was that this crisis had been a long-time coming, and what’s worse, is that the actions governments took did not address any of the core, systemic issues and problems with the global economy; they merely set out to save the banking industry from collapse. To do this, governments around the world implemented massive “stimulus” and “bailout” packages, plunging their countries deeper into debt to save the banks from themselves, while charging it to people of the world. Then an uproar of stock market speculation followed, as money was pumped into the stocks, but not the real economy. This recovery has been nothing but a complete and utter illusion, and within the next two years, the illusion will likely come to a complete collapse.

Citigroup Says Feds Ordered 7 Day Restriction On Bank Withdrawals

From Prison Planet -

A new advisory being sent by America’s third largest bank to its account holders has stoked fears that major financial institutions could be preparing for old fashioned bank runs if the economy takes a turn for the worse.

Originally reported by John Carney over at the Business Insider website, Citigroup is sending the following information to customers along with their bank statements.

“Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change.”

According to the Future of Capitalism blog, Citigroup originally claimed that the warning was only sent nationwide as a result of a mistake, but that the measures do apply to account holders in Texas.

However, in a statement, Citigroup confirmed that they had reserved the right to impose the new 7 day rule on all account holders nationwide, but claimed they had no plans to enforce it. The bank stated that they had been forced to enact the new policy as a result of federal regulations.

The Real Effect
This is not a good development. This combined with the information that 10.5% of all houses are either delinquent or in foreclosure, lack of employment and other various factors things are far from better, they're setting up for the big plunge down.

Ron Paul: Suspend The Income Tax For 3-4 Years

Ron Paul is the legitimate heir to the conservative support base. He should be setting the Federal Policy, not the Sarah Palin hack.

Brown to Vote for Senate Jobs Bill - Told You So

I stated in January -

Now in 2010 we have individuals that are at best, moderates, clothing themselves in liberty dress in an attempt to garner votes. And we think this is going to change anything? Hardly.
The new Tea Party, 9/12, Turner, Hannity, Limbaugh, Petraeus, Palin, Beck, O'Reilly and Brown; these individuals are all Benedict Arnolds to the cause of liberty and will sell you down the river if the right situation arises.

The following comes from the Wall St. Journal -

Freshman Republican Sen. Scott Brown (R., Mass.) is to vote with the Democratic majority and support a crucial procedural motion on a $15 billion piece of legislation aimed at spurring job creation, an aide to the senator said Monday. The move by Mr. Brown to break with most of his party's members in his first ever vote in the Senate is a significant development.

The Real Effect
Oh, they called it a jobs bill. Isn't that cute. Is it like the Patriot Act? Oh, it must be good. It's entertaining to see the "conservatives" fall for the same political move; hook, line and sinker. Feel dumb yet?


Hope and change, hope and change!!! We did it, yeah Obama Brown! It's all going to get better!

Hey, you up front! Sit down and SHUT UP!

Gerald Celente on Engineer

Chossudovsky: US will start WW3 by attacking Iran

States Going Belly Up Part 4

Georgia -

With the Georgia House of Representatives passing a revised 2009-2010 budget and the Senate now working up its own amended version of the current budget, local lawmakers say the financial health of the state is a major concern, and next year’s budget will likely require an additional $1.5 billion in cuts.

Last Thursday, the Georgia House passed an amended version of the 2010 budget to account for decreases in revenue since the budget was finalized last spring, with cuts this time around coming at $1.15 billion. Members voted 122-44 in favor of the new version of the budget, which included a mandate that teachers and other state employees take three furlough days by June 30 in addition to the furlough days already taken.

On his Web site, Rep. Dubose Porter, D-Dublin, who is the Democratic leader in the House, condemned the House’s budget, saying it hurts the state’s already underachieving public education system. He predicted it would result in increased property taxes.

Yes because cutting spending usually means taxes go up. What kind of dystopian nightmare do we live in? I understand that the cuts might mean a "tweak" to the "formulas" that might result in more cash coming from the property tax bucket, but what the Rep. have the good citizens of Georgia do? Nothing!? Let's just keep spending until we all die?!

Illinois -

A highly unusual closed-door meeting of the state Senate lasted about an hour and a half today, and participants said many of the chamber's 59 Democrats and Republicans attended to hear a presentation on budgeting and the economy from national experts.

Lawmakers barred reporters from the meeting, saying it was a joint gathering of the Democratic and Republican caucuses that was not required to be public under the state Constitution or open meetings law.

and Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Rhode Island -

Illinois ranks 50th among the states in setting aside the tens of billions of dollars needed to pay its employee pensions.
The report by the Pew Center on the States, a Washington research group, concludes that Illinois has set aside barely half -- 54%, to be exact -- of the amount it will need to pay benefits in its five worker pension funds, leaving an unfunded liability of $54.4 billion.

That 54% easily is the worst of any state in the union. Only Kansas, at 59%, and Oklahoma and Rhode Island, at 61% each, come anywhere close.

Washington -

The state's economic picture is stabilizing but still precarious, and employment levels likely won't rebound until the second half of 2010, economist Arun Raha said Friday.

Raha told the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council that the state's deficit now sits at about $2.8 billion, with a recent $100 million uptick in demand for state services and a $154 million hit from a court case.
Without the court case, which cost the state revenue from certain out-of-state companies operating in Washington, the state would have seen positive revenue growth -- about $32 million -- for the first time in two years.

"The Great Recession may be over, but it has wrought havoc in our economy which will take time to heal," Raha said.

Wooo...we really dodged a bullet there. It's a great thing that the STATE'S revenue is up. No one has a job, but at least bourgeoisie are intact!

Even Texas is going after old parking tickets. But just how do these statists feel about these sort of things?

Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley says that, regardless of the faltering economy, a no-raise new contract is unacceptable.

And to hell with the public.

“I’m not running a popularity contest here,” Mesley said. “If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen . . . and their taxes have go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership.“

And police wonder why they are becoming targets much less not respected in their communities? Little word of warning police, when they take your lawfully protected pensions and you see fit to caterwaul about it, you won't be getting any sympathy from John Q. Public seeing as how you were complicit in this whole mess. I myself got endure such antics at the hands of blustery mob of angry public school nazis.

EXCLUSIVE - Joseph Andrew Stack - American Patriot Terrorist?

Well, there's an alleged terrorist and he's got a manifesto. Joy. Here's some excerpts of what is sure to be huge news -

Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”.

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”)

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The Real Effect
Wow...this stinks to high heaven.

EXCLUSIVE - Austin IRS Targeted? False Flag to Indict "Patriots"?

I stated this at the end of January -

The banksters need to cover their tracks, they need a distraction. I wouldn't be surprised to see a building with all sorts of documentation get targeted.

Breaking from Austin, TX -

A plane crashed into a Northwest Austin building that houses federal offices about 9:30 this morning, sending plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

Paramedics have set up a triage center at the scene, though it is unclear how many people are injured. EMS officials said one person was unaccounted for.

Mathilda Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the Seton Family of Hospitals, said University Medical Center Brackenridge received two patients, and that no other hospitals had received any.

The Internal Revenue Service has offices in the building, including its civil enforcement and criminal investigations divisions, said Special Agent Michael Lemoine, a spokesman for the criminal investigations division.

He said that some IRS offices are on the first floor, which Lemoine said was hit by the plane.

According to an FBI agent who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to release information, the incident is being investigated as an accident, although eyewitnesses said the plane seemed to come in at full throttle. He said the plane was out of Waco and that Federal Aviation Administration officials are en route to the scene.

The agent said it was believed the plane had come from Waco, and that witnesses said it had hit the building at full-throttle.

The Real Effect
Something is very fishy about this. Could it be that Austin, TX is about to have a gubernatorial election and this will help the incumbent Rick "Bilderberg" Perry get Debra Medina off his back? Further on in the article it talks about the plane being "very controlled" and a "big boom". We'll definitely keep our eyes open on this one.

Contagion Spreads to Spain?

From Business Week -

Even as the 27 finance minsters of the European Union gathered in Brussels yesterday and ordered Greece, again, to impose yet more hardship on its people in order to slash the national deficit, some may have been eyeing their colleagues around the Brussels meeting room warily.

For all are concerned about which nation might next suffer from the dreaded "contagion." The fear is that the next member of the so-called "PIIGS" — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain — to suffer a crisis of confidence will be Spain.

Spain's banks are strong and acquisitive, stronger than most other countries' institutions. But Spain's annual budget deficit, like the UK's and Greece's, has spiralled well into double figures – at almost 12 per cent of GDP it rivals Greece's Olympian disregard for the old Maastricht treaty rules of prudence.

And the markets are worried. Not, admittedly as fretful as they are about Greece, but the market price of insuring Spanish government debt has jumped in recent weeks (the mysterious-sounding credit default swaps), and now stands at €139,000 per €10m of debt – four times the cost of insuring an equivalent German bond.

The EU's Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia – a Spaniard – has suggested that Spain's economic problems look increasingly like those of Greece and Portugal. But in a worst case scenario, Greece is affordable – about 2.5 per cent of European GDP.

Spain, conversely, accounts for about 16 per cent of EU GDP, and is a much more expensive proposition for restoration work. Indeed, there are some grounds for supposing that, even if Berlin wanted to, it might be unable to afford to take on Spain's fiscal challenges.

The Real Effect
As I stated at the beginning and the end of January -

I do know that Greece's woes are going to blow out into the eurozone specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland as they are all big holders of Greek bonds. This in turn will cause their economies to suffer as the fallout becomes contagious.

It would appear that Greece is the fuse and Spain is the explosives.

Greece and the EU, A Foreshadowing of Things to Come

From Ambrose Evans-Pritchard -

The council of EU finance ministers said Athens must comply with austerity demands by March 16 or lose control over its own tax and spend policies altogether. It if fails to do so, the EU will itself impose cuts under the draconian Article 126.9 of the Lisbon Treaty in what would amount to economic suzerainty.
While the symbolic move to suspend Greece of its voting rights at one meeting makes no practical difference, it marks a constitutional watershed and represents a crushing loss of sovereignty.

Consider the following EU tyranny -

The international meddlers are going after the Greek Underground Economy, aggressively. They are using the current government debt crisis to gain as much control over the GUE as thay can

Effective January 1, 2011 every transaction above 1,500 euros will be considered illegal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards.

But wait, Greece has a card up it's sleeve -

Greece's 2001 deal to swap some of its debt using currency derivatives was in line with what other euro-zone countries were doing, Yiannos Papantoniou, the country's finance and economy minister when the deal was made, told CNBC.com Wednesday.
"We took a loan that was to be repaid in 2019," he said in a telephone interview. "It was public. I know that what we've done then was consistent with what was done by many euro zone countries."
Italy, France and Spain were among the euro zone members doing such swaps at the time, he added. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, has asked Greece for explanations on these debt swaps by Feb. 19.

Oooo...is it getting thick in here?

The Real Effect
All Americans would do well to consider the implications of these items in light of our current ongoing currency/economic collapse. Once the Union hooks are in, you can't get out and those politicians are going to make sure that they get their pound of flesh.

The EU will make it through this in one form or another (It might cease to be called the EU but it will still be the EU.) However, the globalists will see to it that America and vestige of independent thinking burns.

A wise man once said -

The long and short is they are bleeding the real assets out of the United States and passing them into foreign control. Make no mistake, they will bleed this country dry. Savings, checkings, 401K, gold, assets, they want it all and will not stop until they get it.